This past weekend, MoMA presented a collaboration between
electronic musician Daniel Lopatin—who records under the moniker Oneohtrix
Point Never—and video artist Nate Boyce, as part of its PopRally series of art
parties. While not an overly
serious gathering, Boyce and Lopatin delivered an hour of strobing,
structuralist-minded imagery over relentless digital throbbing. Each of the work’s sections was based
upon a specific object in the MoMA’s sculpture collection and the overarching
title, Reliquary House, suggested a
congratulatory pat on the back for the museum. PopRally events are more often than not thematically
connected to what’s concurrently on MoMA’s walls, while in this case the
institution’s history was the tie-in.

The video screen displayed 3-D renderings of modernist forms
by Isamo Noguchi, David Smith, Jacob Epstein, and Anthony Caro, which gyrated
in “impossible” landscapes evoking the Panopticon look of the music video to
Nine Inch Nail’s “Down In It.” To
clarify their intention, Lopatin began each movement with details of the image
being projected—dates, dimensions, curatorial texts—dictated by robotic voices
a la Siri and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Within the foreboding visual environment, these came off as
provocations of a sort, which gave way to beds of digital glitches and
rollicking bass oscillations, positing a bleak underbelly to the neutrality of
the subject material. Boyce and
Lopatin, who often communicate a sense of humor about the austerity of
contemporary tools and approaches in their work, perplexed the droll audience,
who perhaps expected Lopatin to perform the angelic synthesizer music
indicative of his latest record, Replica. Boyce and Lopatin stood ground
side-by-side, facing their laptops, but more often were caught gazing up at the
video screen.

NEW YORK UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL SCREENING:HOW THE WEST MAY SAVE US YET

From Olympia to Los Angeles, musicians and film artists up and down the Pacific coast are getting together to liberate the music video from its status-quo context as self-promotional tool and transform it into a new, confrontational art form, displacing major-label preen with honest, direct address and DIY visual kinesis Despite having next-to-nothing budgets, production values are way high.

Assembled by musician and curator Nick Hallett, the reel is a follow-up to last fall's '23 Reasons to Spare New York,' a syllabus of the Big Apple's new psychedelic wave. This screening will likewise involve its fair share of the heavy, heady visuals (this is the west coast, man!) Just imagine what MTV would look like if it still broadcast subversive, anti-consumerist, revolution-invoking, and seizure-inducing films, soundtracked by bands that actually push the boundaries of sound.

HARKNESS A/V is hosting one of MIGHTY ROBOT's incredible lightshows with new music by IMAGINARY FOLK and NECKING at MONKEY TOWN (which was just nominated for a time out award as best new restaurant!). as a HARKNESS event, the focus is on both the visuals and the music coming together to create one immersive experience. please come. details below...

Imaginary Folk will go on around 10:30 pm. Imaginary Folk is a NYC-based improvisation group that has been performing since 2004. The group's name refers to the music played as well as its ensemble members; improvisation is explored as a method of reinventing musical worlds through live performance and a sentimental attachment to recorded music, as well as a way of imagining, improvising, and performing who we are as people. Imaginary Folk seeks to draw all music towards the "public domain", where, facilitated by recording technology, music is dissolved as intellectual property and re-dispersed as an agent for a personalized link to culture and its differences. The group's members collectively have backgrounds in klezmer, chamber music, jazz, and composition.

Necking will go on around 9:30 pm. This Brooklyn ensemble often plays with just two or three members. But for this performance we expect five or six persons making all sorts of racket on all sorts of things, including the occasional instrument.

AUROVILLE exists on the southeastern coast of india, an experiment in living based on the teachings of scholar, radical nationalist and integral yoga guru, sri aurobindo, and realized by his spiritual partner, known to the universe simply as "the mother." built around a sacred banyan tree, the township takes its shape as a spiral galaxy. in its nucleus, a giant golden geodesic dome--called the MATRIMANDIR--houses a meditation chamber which holds the world's largest manufactured crystal orb. thousands of people visit AUROVILLE daily to catch a glimpse of this orb. fewer get the chance to meditate in its presence.

AUROVILLE will be performed by seth kirby (electronic drones) and nick hallett (chanting). there will be a mylar installation by I LOVE YOU (seth and the vivacious ana matronic, who plans to plot our stage on the golden mean and will perform a multimedia presentation in powerpoint) and MIGHTY ROBOT will be there as always with their incredible psychedelic projections...

here are the details:

HARKNESS A/V SALON at SECRET PROJECT ROBOT

presents

AUROVILLE immersive music and visual environment by nick hallett and seth kirby documenting the experiment in human unity and spirituality existing in india since 1968 (first nyc performance, world debut: yale school of art '04).

I LOVE YOU music and mylar installation by seth kirby and ana matronic, featuring a performance of "open to above," recently performed at the kitchen.

AUROVILLEimmersive music and visual environment by nick hallett and seth kirby documenting the experiment in human unity and spirituality existing in india since 1968 (first nyc performance, world debut: yale school of art '04).

I LOVE YOUmusic and mylar installation by seth kirby and ana matronic, featuring a performance of "open to above," recently performed at the kitchen.